(1) Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to interfacing of peripherals to data processing systems and more particularly to serial interfacing of peripherals having different levels of functionality.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Computer systems are often equipped with peripherals, such as human interface devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse, etc.), data storage devices (e.g., flash memory, hard drives, optical drives, etc.), printers, scanners, communication devices, etc. Such peripherals are often connected in accordance with a standardized interface (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB)). Computers are typically provided with USB host controllers to support their USB interfaces. Such USB host controllers allow the computer to communicate with the peripherals, but may not provide a desired level of communication between peripherals. While it would be possible to implement a USB host controller in a peripheral and connect other peripherals to that peripheral to allow that peripheral to interact with the other peripherals and/or to access and even modify data from the other peripherals, implementing a full-functionality USB host controller in a peripheral would be complex and costly, while implementing a limited-functionality USB host controller in the peripheral would not provide support for other peripherals requiring a full-functionality USB host controller. Thus, a cost-effective solution that supports a wide range of peripherals is needed.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.